Emilio Sutti

EMILIO SUTTI
Emilio Sutti passed away Monday, July 27, 2009. Commerative services are set for Thursday August 13th, 7:00 p.m. at Dudley Hoffman Mortuary with the recital of the Holy Rosary and funeral services on Friday August 14th, 1:00 p.m. at St Louis de Montfort Catholic Church in Orcutt, with Fr. Ed Jalbert, C. J. presiding. Interment will follow at the Guadalupe cemetery with a reception following immediately thereafter at the Far Western Tavern in Guadalupe. Visitation will be open to friends on August 13th between the hours of 4:00pm-8:00pm at the Dudley Hoffman Mortuary in Santa Maria. In lieu of flowers, the Sutti family requests that donations be made to the Betteravia Historical Foundation in care of Heritage Oaks Bank, Town Center West, Santa Maria, CA. Emilio was born on January 16, 1922 in his family farmhouse in Santa Ynez. He was the son of Pietro and Maria Sutti, both 1st generation Northern Italian immigrants and pioneer dairy operators in Santa Maria Valley. Being the youngest of seven children, his family gave him the nickname "Babe". Emilio's father passed away in 1929, which gave him the early age challenge to undertake and adapt to the hard and demanding work on a dairy. Emilio met this challenge graciously and without discontent. The association with hard work, and the endurance that it called for, would become a part of Emilio's personality and would characterize him for the rest of his life. At this young age he would also develop a deep love and admiration for his mother, who, in his many remembrances, would always accept the burdens of her day and continue to work with sacrifice and without complaint to provide for her family. The dairy business yielded a meager existence in those days with Emilio attending elementary school in Guadalupe with shoes lined with cardboard. As the family entered the era of the Great Depression, it became difficult for his mother and family to provide sustenance for all their basic needs. At this time, a close and trusted friend of Emilio's mother recognized the family's plight and offered to foster Emilio's care at their family operated bakery in Soledad, California, and later in South San Francisco. With regret and heartbreak, Emilio's mother accepted the offer and Emilio left for his new life at the bakery. These two compassionate people, George and Eleanor Ginepro, would become Emilio's foster parents whom he would love and cherish until the end of their lives. At the age of 14, in 1936, Emilio would finally be able to come back home to his beloved Mother and the family. The family was still in the throes of the shortfall for money, so Emilio, after exaggerating his age, went to work as a "milkman" at Knudsen Creamery in Santa Maria. The job required early morning "cow milker" hours, but Emilio took it in stride graciously. Many people in Santa Maria would always remember the young milkman who would whistle and sing as he hurried through his route, and upon those occasions, would always greet with a large smile and sparkling eyes. Emilio had an inspired appreciation for music, song and the good will and joy that it brought to those who participated. At the age of 8 he would hear and was affected by the accordion music as played by a local accordionist, Gino Ambrosini. Emilio somehow found the time to take lessons from Mr. Ambrosini and quickly found his talent, and thereafter, a lifelong passion for accordion playing. Although he didn't learn to read sheet music, his natural music ability allowed him to learn to play by ear and he soon became highly accomplished with his accordion playing. So much so accomplished that when he returned to Santa Maria in 1936 from his stay in Soledad and South San Francisco, he was requested to play at many Saturday night get-togethers. Emilio's memories of those days took him from bars in Santa Maria's "Whiskey Row", to the town of Betteravia and to the original Commercial Hotel (later the Far Western Tavern) in Guadalupe where he would play into the early morning hours, and then without sleep, go directly to his milk route at Knudsen's. In those years, of course, there were no child labor laws or unions to dispossess him of this opportunity and his love of doing so. In 1942, with the US involvement in WWII imminent, Emilio decided that upon the country's demand for military servicemen he would enlist in the US Marine Corp, which he did in September of that year. But, if he would have enlisted and gone off to war, he would have left Santa Maria without accomplishing his life long dream of buying and providing a home for his beloved Mother. He had searched and located a property on East Newlove Street in Santa Maria that had a respectable 2 story wood frame house with out-buildings for tools and winemaking and a large chicken coup for eggs as well as a small red winegrape planting and an orchard. It embodied his dream that he always had as his gift of love for his mother. The problem was that the price was $7500.00 and Emilio had only $3700.00 in cash. He also didn't have any banking experience at that age but he knew that to close a deal he would need to acquire a loan, and, he would have to close a deal quickly as the days before entering the war were short. He was familiar with Bank of America and had heard people say good things about Frank Shields who ran the local branch of Bank of America, acting as its president. He decided to brave it and meet Mr. Shields face to face and give him his pitch. Emilio always vividly remembered the meeting with Frank Shields where he gave his seemingly impossible speech, and, as Emilio later remembered it, time stopped in a vacuum for a minute in which Frank Shields, without a blink, stared directly in Emilio's eyes and then finally, in Frank Shield's direct, no nonsense style said "Okay, I'll give you a loan. I trust you." They shook hands and the deal was defacto complete and he was then able to purchase the house for his mother. Soon thereafter, Emilio entered the war and was subsequently stationed in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Theater. Rising to the rank of Master Technician Sergeant, Emilio was in charge of a platoon of servicemen that provided maintenance and repair for combat aircraft. In between his service applied duties and bombing raids that virtually destroyed all vegetation on the island, Emilio was summoned to entertain the troops on the surrounding islands with his accordion playing. He would be picked up and delivered to the destinations via small boats and landing crafts. This would become an instant form of transportation but a nightmare for Emilio, as once upon the open water and almost always, Emilio would become dreadfully seasick. Emilio survived the war but his accordion was destroyed when it fell into the ocean during a bombing raid in the last months of his tour of duty. The war ended for Emilio ended when he was honorably discharged in November of 1945. In commemoration of his service to his country, and to replace his destroyed accordion, the local Elks Lodge #1538 presented Emilio with a new accordion upon his return home to Santa Maria in 1945. During the war, Emilio had kept in contact with his sweetheart, Irene Ruffoni, a Santa Maria native. It was through these letters that their courtship evolved with Emilio actually proposing marriage through one of his "love letters". Irene accepted the proposal and received her engagement ring in one of these letters. While Emilio was still on active duty and during leave, they were married in Santa Maria in March of 1945. From Santa Maria, Emilio and Irene went to the Cherry Point military facility in Moorhead City in North Carolina where he was stationed until his discharge. From North Carolina, the newlyweds moved back to Santa Maria where they joined with family members, Rick and Lilly, and